Promotion, professional practice and patient trust July 2014 Tim Reed Health Action International This document arises from HAI Europe’s Operating Grant 2014, which has received funding from the European Union, under the health programme framework. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author, who is solely responsible for its content. The Executive Agency for Health and Consumers is not responsible for any use of the information herein.

Acknowledgements: Dee Mangin, HAI Member, Author Chap 9 Financial disclosure: No pharmaceutical or advertising industry funding Funding for my position: DFID, UK; DG Sanco, EU Disclosure

Outline: Patient Trust Discriminatory Principle Misleading Promotion Chronic Diseases Preventative Treatment Promotion and Clinical Practice Responsibility of Health Professionals

Promotion, professional practice and patient trust What have we been talking about in the last three days? At the heart of this course and the accompanying manual is the patient. Patients have a right to good care and providing it should be the aim and the responsibility of all health-care practitioners. This begins with the patient sitting with a clinician in a consultation - the patient is often worried, sometimes frightened, forgetful, in pain, lying. The patient trusts that the health professional will provide advice based on the best available information.

Promotion, professional practice and patient trust Above all, patients expect to be protected from unnecessary harm. Good advice informed by both evidence and wisdom Prescribing and dispensing must always balance the potential for benefit against the possibility of harm. Do not add to their burden by unnecessarily inflicting the harms of medicines on them. Do not add to their burden by confusing practice of medicine with the giving of medicines. Do not shy away from not prescribing or of using non- pharmacological treatments.

Promotion, professional practice and patient trust Sometimes giving a medicine is not the wisest choice. Best course is to use other treatment options, or no intervention at all. Good care includes giving patients information and a sense of competence in coping or adjusting to illness so that life remains worth living. The giving of hope, appreciation of context, trust and reassurance are fundamental components of this interaction with patients. While patients should take an active role in their own care, it may also mean not always giving patients what they request… Medicines!

Precautionary Prescribing Prescribing a medicine is one of the riskiest things you will do for patients. Promotion, whether direct or indirect, is aimed at increasing the use of newer, patented medicines. Being an early adopter of new medicines is not necessarily in patients' best interests, considering the often relatively small benefits and how little is known about unknown rare and long-term harms of newly introduced medicines. In minimising potential harm, adopting a 'precautionary prescribing' approach is safer.

Discriminatory Principle The good prescriber is one who is discriminatory - who knows when to suggest a particular medicine, but most importantly when not to. "It is an art of no little importance to administer medicines properly: but, it is an art of much greater and more difficult acquisition to know when to suspend or altogether to omit them." (Pinel, 1809).

Misleading Promotion Why is developing a strategy for dealing with promotion important? Independent evidence is overwhelmed the volume of promotional material. In the UK, the pharmaceutical industry has a marketing budget of £1.65 billion times more than the UK NHS spends on independent information To use medicines in a rational way requires : independent evidence on the effects of medicines understanding of the commercial biases the ability to recognise and take account of the effects of misleading promotional material and activities

Misleading Promotion The 'benefits' of indiscriminate prescribing and dispensing resulting from misleading promotion go directly to pharmaceutical companies and health professionals, but it is patients who bear the risks. Sometimes, the risks are fatal. The case study of the Cox-2 inhibitor rofecoxib - the risks of this medicine were known for four of the five years that it was promoted Glitizones: in 2006 there were +/- 3.5 million users of rosiglitazone in the US = 4,000 additional myocardial infarctions and 9,000 additional heart failures

Promotion and Chronic Conditions Chronic conditions are a large potential market for pharmaceutical companies, and long-term exposure to medicines for patients. Direct and indirect advertising consumers and direct-to- physician advertising focused on a small number of medicines for NCDs Often new and still under patent When prescribing and dispensing a long-term medicine for a chronic condition, there should be reasonable certainty that, on balance, it will relieve the burden of disease, not add to it. Cost implication for medicines that demonstrate no therapeutic advantage at a high price

Preventative Treatment Clinical decision-making carries an additional responsibility when introducing preventive treatments There is a difference between treatments for the relief of symptoms and making recommendations for treatments for prevention of future illness When offering treatment to relieve symptoms we rely on evidence - its gaps, biases and uncertainties and the patient's individual response to that treatment

Preventative Treatments For preventive treatments, a greater burden of proof is needed for treatment that will change the pattern of disease and any improvement to the future health Construction of disease and risk: natural physiological processes, such as a gradual decrease in bone density as people age, are misrepresented as diseases. ‘Disease Mongering' is used to describe this process of medicalisation of natural processes. Manufactured chronic diseases mean the potential for market expansion for pharmaceutical companies promoting treatments for non-diseases.

Promotion and clinical Practice Promotion of pharmaceuticals is designed to drive prescribing decisions in order to stimulate sales. A range of promotional techniques: Research design and interpretation of results Publication decisions Treatment guidelines based on that research Direct influence clinical practice through advertising Sales representative visits Indirect marketing techniques direct and disguised direct-to-patient advertising

Promotion and clinical Practice Pharmaceutical companies' primary and legitimate responsibility is to maximise profits for shareholders. Regulation should ensure that these interests do not override the values of good clinical care, individuals and society. The promise of regulation to protect patients has failed: regulatory frameworks do not exist Inadequate monitoring and enforcement Conflict of Interest Promotional activities are not recognised

Responsibility of Health Professionals Pharmaceutical companies are commercial businesses Some products that are helpful in life-transforming ways for some people Pharmaceutical companies, through their marketing departments, are fundamentally traders trying to increase profit rather than altruistic organisations trying to improve health It is the failure of health professionals to recognise this fact and respond appropriately to promotion and poor science will result in harm to patients The challenge for you now is how you will deal with this in order to provide the best possible care for your patients